Futility Closet

In 1864, two ships' crews were cast away at the same time on the same remote island in the Southern Ocean. But the two groups would undergo strikingly different experiences. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll tell the story of the Auckland Islands castaways and reflect on its implications for the wider world. We'll also consider some fateful illnesses and puzzle over a street fighter's clothing. Intro: Lewis Carroll proposed fanciful logic problems. In 1946, a kangaroo made off with William Thompson's money. Sources for our feature on the Aucklands Islands castaways: Joan Druett, Island of the Lost: An Extraordinary Story of Survival at the Edge of the World, 2007. Nicholas A. Christakis, Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society, 2019. Elizabeth McMahon, Islands, Identity and the Literary Imagination, 2016. A.W. Eden, Islands of Despair, 1955. William Pember Reeves, New Zealand, 1908. F.E. Raynal, Wrecked on a Reef, or Twenty Months on the Auckland Islands, 1880. T. Mus